The first big purchase as a couple can be a bit of a gamble. Differing expectations, desires and budgets are all potential conflict points. Best of luck if you are the one responsible for a poor choice. The first vehicle my wife (then fiance) and I bought together was the replacement for her very unreliable 1990 Dodge Shadow, but it turned out to be only marginally more trustworthy.
Her Shadow had been a good car for her father and for her for a couple more years, but all of a sudden it just started falling apart. There were a number of electrical issues that ranged from annoying, like headlights that had to have their wires jiggled a bit to being coaxed into working; to dangerous, like wipers that only sporadically worked. The window washer fluid spray was at least consistent in not functioning and I can recall many times stopping at the side of the highway to smear snow over the windshield in an attempt to clean it.
Built in an era when Chrysler as well as others had been struggling to adjust to more environmentally friendly paints, the blue paint flaked off leaving random patches of primer showing. The engine would have many fits of overheating even more worryingly it would die at seemingly random times. Some sort of electrical gremlin was no doubt responsible as it would start like nothing was wrong hours or sometimes days later. Fortunately we had an AMA membership with roadside assistance. Unfortunately, after a few months they told us we had used up all of our “unlimited” free tows. Time for a new set of wheels.
We had two thousand dollars, give or take, to buy a replacement. Being young and ignorant we didn’t keep back any of that amount for such mundane things like repairs or tires but went looking for something at the maximum end of our budget. As any man in a relationship knows there are some compromises one has to make. I wanted to buy from a private seller to get more bang for our buck but she felt comfort in buying from a dealer. So we, of course, went to check some dealers. The pickings in our price range were pretty slim as two grand at a dealer does not go very far. She had an odd passion for late eighties and early nineties Cavaliers at the time but after attempting to test drive a particularly horrid example I managed to dodge that bullet. After managing to strike old Cavaliers from the list I wanted something a bit sporty and she was enamored with a commanding view offered by a truck or SUV. A local Honda dealership, oddly enough, had a something for each of us both in Ford flavor and late 80s vintage.
The one that caught my eye was a matte black 1989 Ford Taurus SHO with a slightly beat up leather interior and five speed manual gearbox. Having grown up in small, dull, economical cars the big and brash SHO drew me in. It didn’t hurt either that the 225hp Yamaha V6 engine has one of the world’s most beautiful intake manifolds under the hood. Unfortunately my wife was quite down on the car, mostly, because of a few tears in the front seats. I offered up the idea of slapping on a couple seat covers but this only further insulted her aesthetic sensibilities.
The other candidate was a 1988 Ford Bronco II in white dotted with (many) surface rust spots. How rust covering the body like acne spots on a teenager’s face is more visually acceptable than a few cuts in the seats I’m not sure, but somehow it was for her. Inside instead of the leather in the SHO, there was loads of velour in that oh-so-eighties shade of whorehouse red. With the exception of the heating vents being full of leaves, the interior was actually in relatively immaculate shape. I was still pushing for the SHO but again a “compromise” was called for, so after a (too) short test drive we determined that it drove well enough and each chipped in a thousand dollars to make our first big joint purchase.
Our time with the Bronco got off to a bit of a rocky start and while I’d like to say it got better from there, I’m not sure I can. The day after taking the Bronco home I had to pick up my wife from the university. Sitting in the parking lot which had a bit of a downhill slope I suddenly noticed a rather large black puddle coming out from under the truck. Alarmingly it was getting bigger by the second. Oh dear. I quickly shut off the motor and called the dealership. The sight of our vehicle on the end of a tow truck was familiar, but at least this time it was a different vehicle. The dealer never did tell us the root cause of the issue but I suspect the technician who had done the oil change only finger tightened the oil pan drain plug.
Because ours was a 1988 model it had the fuel injected 2.9L V6 rather than the earlier 2.8L carburetor equipped unit. A Mitsubishi 2.3L diesel was also offered in 1986 but I’d imagine they are quite rare. The 2.9L engine put out a decent 140hp and coupled with a five-speed manual gearbox, gave reasonable performance. While certainly not as responsive as the 2.5L four cylinder and five-speed in her Dodge Shadow, both shared an occasional overheating issue. Apparently these early 2.9L engines are known for overheating and cracking their heads. The flaw was fixed in later 2.9L V6 production years with a new head, but only after the little Bronco II was out of production. I would not be surprised if ours had those issues and more because if you left it idling or got stuck in traffic for too long it would start getting rather warm and making some extremely loud knocking noises (banging, really). Fellow drivers would stare in disbelief. I don’t believe it ever stranded us again after the first day but I could never trust it.
By reputation, the Bronco II is a fine off-roader but overheating is not generally a desirable attribute in an off-road capable vehicle. While I had a desire to try out an off road adventure there was an additional reason I didn’t venture onto any trails with the Bronco. The transfer case shifted into four wheel drive just fine. You could even go into high range four wheel drive on the fly at low speeds. Shifting to low range required coming to a stop but even then it shifted nicely. Shifting out of 4L (four wheel drive low range) required shifting to to 2H (two wheel drive) then backing up a little to unlock the hubs. This didn’t work quite as smoothly as I found out. We were scheduled to drive to up to Calgary which was a good two and a half hour drive with some friends. I thought I’d show them my spiffy 4×4 vehicle by popping it into 4L and climbing a small mound of dirt. That was fine until it came time to head out and I couldn’t get it back into two wheel drive. About ten minutes of shifting and backing up I was finally able to unlock two wheel drive (and highway speeds) but that little bit of showing off sure backfired that day.
We did a lot of highway driving at the time and the overheating issue generally didn’t rear its ugly head on the open road, but we did have a big scare in it. To set the stage I will mention that we live in one of the most windy places in North America and that the wind is quite consistent going from west to east. The Bronco II is a tall, short vehicle and as such, susceptible to cross winds. My wife was driving and we were heading south at the time. We’d come up behind a slow moving semi and just as she was finishing passing it, a great gust of wind blew across the front of our car (the rear being shielded from the wind by the semi likely made the situation worse). While it certainly felt like we tipped onto two wheels, we likely weren’t but there was still definitely that sick feeling of being out of control for several seconds before she manged to get the Bronco back under control. There was an investigation into Bronco II rollovers in 1989 but it concluded rollover rates were similar to other SUVs of the era. I can’t recall how long we owned it after that but it could not have been long.
Overall the Bronco was a bit of a mixed bag. It was our first big purchase together, giving us six months or so of somewhat reliable transportation, and without costing too much to own. On the negative side, it could be rather embarrassing with its loud knocking and I could never trust it enough to take its tires off road. In fact every time I drove it, I mentally prepared myself to call the scrapyard to haul it away and walk home. There is also the nagging regret for me on the SHO road not taken. It likely wouldn’t have worked out much better on the reliability front but I bet it would have been a lot more fun. We drove my Z28 for the next few summer months then upped the budget considerably when we bought our next joint vehicle.
Another forgotten Ford from the 80s…These aren’t exactly peeking at you from around every corner anymore, even though they were relatively common in my elementary school days.
Good story, Dave! While I was in high school, my boss bought one of these new (an Eddie Bauer version) and sometimes gave me rides home after work if I needed one, I recall that the interior was quite attractive with very comfortable seats. Strangely I think that is the one and only example I’ve ever been in. They were very popular in SoCal at the time.
Yesterday we had an early exploder in the shop for tires and from looking for the outside I was impressed with its very little rust and clean frame. On driving it into the shop I noticed the headliner was discolored and sagging in a bunch of spots. I looked at the roof and noticed the around where the roof rack mounts was rusted through at all four corners. Here rust usually starts from the bottom and works its way up so the roof rust (and that the truck was not rusty anywhere else) was interesting.
During that timeframe (1986-89), I’d take a Jeep Cherokee over the Bronco II and even the Chevy S10 Blazer. Especially if it has the 4.0 inline 6. One thing the Cherokee had that the Bronco II and the S10 Blazer didn’t was a 4-door bodystyle. No wonder Ford ditched the Bronco II in 1990 and replaced it with the Explorer.
Best SUV bet in 1986 was the 4 Runner.
The early XJs of that era where not all that much better, with the weaksauce GM V6, electrical gremlins, AMC dealer network. Even the 1st few years of the now legendary AMC 232 I6 had issues with the fuel injection system. Chrysler just keep building the XJ and fixed all the bugs as the run when on.
I want one even more now. And there are quite a few left around here in Ford country. Also love how people can have one little problem with a vehicle and brand it “unreliable” or a POS…
To be fair my particular example had quite a few serious issues so it was a POS. It wasn’t near new or particularly expensive when I bought it however. The early 2.9L V6 are known to have issues but later variants are much more reliable.
Suzulight. Yes! So true! It always floored me that people will label a vehicle “junk” for the silliest reason. I worked with a guy that had an AMC Javelin. He thought the car was a pile of pure junk because the dome light would come on while driving. Most likely just needed the door switch adjusted. I have found that people with these “junk” cars are the same ones that fail to do basic maintenance, then scream “Junk”, no matter what brand it is. I have bought these “junk” cars on occasion, and found them to be great cars, by performing some basic maintenance and repair. It doesn’t matter if it is a Chevette or a Rolls Royce, all need to be maintained.
These were very well known to be evil-handling in crosswinds or abrupt control inputs such as an emergency maneuver. Overheating and head gasket problems were widespread as well. The little V-6 was eventually developed into an excellent engine but the Bronco II was not one of Ford’s finer efforts. I’d even suggest it qualifies as a “deadly sin”.
Southern Alberta has some wild wind conditions for sure. A few years back I was westbound on Highway 3 out of Lethbridge when the wind blew over a tractor trailer in front of me. He had an empty 53′ van and wasn’t going very fast so no serious damage or injuries but it was pretty dramatic. I’m glad I wasn’t driving a Bronco II that day.
Fun fact: While the Bronco II and Ranger of that era shared a suspension, one could buy a Lift Kit for Ranger, but not Bronco II. Despite the fact that the same kit would physically work on both vehicles, the manufacturers of such kits were so afraid of the instability of the Bronco II (and even worse if lifted) they would specifically state that a Ranger Lift Kit was “not for use on Bronco II”.
It sounds like your overheating problem was the fan clutch, which I saw a couple of times back in the day.
Ive only got limited experience with the bronco II but for a year I was stuck with its cousin, a ’87 Ranger. A 2wd singlecab shortbed with the 2.9 V6 and manual trans. Sounds like it could be a bit of fun, on paper. But nope! Total POS. Granted, the only real ‘trouble’ it gave me was a fried clutch at 89K miles courtesy of that high strung V6, and a blown out tie rod end right before I sold it. It was an el cheapo stop gap after I skragged my ’81 CJ-7 but did I ever LOATHE that truck. It was dark grey with a silver rocker stripe, chrome trim, and the crappiest little 14″ plain jane silver steelies wrapped in trike tires. From outward appearances it looked like the ranger a 70 year old man would choose. The V6 was all of about 150 hp that you had to flog up to at least 3500 rpm to ever see. Compared to my Jeeps and my dad’s ’84 Power Ram, the gearshift felt like a kabob skewer jammed into soft dirt as you rowed thru the gears. My 6’1 200 lb (at that time) frame barely fit in the cab. It handled sloppily, accelerated feebly considering the lite weight, dinky tires and best powertrain available for ’87. For my 20 mile commute to school, 23 mpg was sad indeed considering that the 15 mpg from a Jeep was perfectly acceptable.
Its funny how if you actually love a vehicle, you’ll tolerate all of its quirks, faults, and any trouble it gives you is just ‘part of owning a car’. But if you truly hate your ride, you wont tolerate so much as a whimper when you flog it mercilessly.
Were those training wheels OEM or aftermarket?
Factory-installed option. They were actually retractable on the Eddie Bauer package.
/s
In the fall of 1987 I ordered an Eddie Bauer Bronco II to replace my ’84 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z. The Bronco II had to be ordered because I wanted the 5 speed manual and Deep Shadow Blue paint. My dealer tried every store within 100 miles and could not find one. I waited for about 8 weeks to take delivery.
The little Blue Bronco is still one of my favorite cars. It was like a tall sportscar. It went in all weather and could fit in a compact parking spot. I drove it until the spring of 1990 when I traded it for a ’91 Eddie Bauer Explorer 4 door (also with a 5-speed manual). The Bronco II had been so reliable that my brother got it from the dealer in a trade for his ’89 Chrysler LeBaron.
Was tempted to spring for one of these about six months ago. Wife didn’t like it at all. You could say that makes her smarter than me and I wouldn’t argue. Negated by the fact that she wanted that POS Olds Bravada that shafted us so completely. Would have been better off buying that bronco almost certainly. Not that it was so good. Just that the Olds was so bad.
The Bronco is likely cheaper and easier to repair.
These were everywhere, until they weren’t.
I have long figured that there few purchases riskier than an inexpensive used car from a dealer.
I still see a few with the composite headlights but the early seamed beam headlight ones seem to be quite rare these days.
Funny how the International Scout and Original Bronco never had roll over issues in it’s lifetime. But when you consider the Bronco II checked in during the time of the Audi unintended acceleration debacle I begin to understand. Joan Claybrook, NHSTA, competing TV news magazines trying to out do each other in uncovering the latest evil scandal perpetrated by evil capitalists and suddenly you see the fruits of a litigious society in the making.
I bought my 84 in 1985 with very little miles on the clock. Never once did I feel unstable; then again I never drove it like it was a 79 Mustang 2.3 Turbo with the TRX suspension; either. It was great in the snow, sand and mud. Aftermarket parts were non-existent.
Overall, I loved it. Decent fuel mileage combined with tough looks with that boxy cab. Comfortable seats, good visibility, especially with the rear side panoramic window. Something that soured me was the marriage of Ford EEC-IV engine controls with a carburetor. It just never seemed to work out, be it emissions test failures during it’s annual inspection up to going through EGR valves and the sensor that sits atop it like it was an annual maintenance requirement.
Come nearly every rain event; even a damp, foggy day, would see the truck start to buck and bounce as if it lost a cylinder, then another, then another. Coming to a stop would find it stall out on me. Restarts were hard unless it had time to sit. I believe Ford’s solution was a plastic vent for the distributor cap, supposedly to vent out the moisture inside the distributor that built up until it shorted out the ignition voltage pathway. The fix seemed to work to some degree, but there were those one or two occasions where those nasty operating manners would pop up. I believe the TFI ignition modules were troublesome too. I had a later Ranger STX with the 2.9 EFI and that was an improvement over my old 2.8 V6, especially when it came time to adjust the solid lifters.
I too had the issue with the 2.9 cylinder heads. It was actually cheaper to buy an entire rebuilt engine from NAPA then deal with Ford in buying just 2 cylinder heads.
Part of it, I suspect, is because ordinary folk were now driving these little SUVs. Original Broncos and Scouts tended to be owned by folks who realized they drove different than the typical family sedan. These Bronco IIs often replaced a small family car and were perhaps driven in a similar fashion.
I grew up with a Bronco II. My parents bought an 88 with a 5-speed around 1990 or so and it was in the family, passing on to my brother in 1997 or so. He drove it until it eventually rotted away. Served us quite well all those years but I remember the giant rear windows cooking the back seat on hot summer days (it didn’t have AC).
What’s the difference between a ESTF 12A650-P1A & ESTF 12A650-L1A ?
I still use mine as a daily driver and love it! 1984 5 speed carborated 2.8L never fails to start no matter how hot or cold (although it does sputter from time to time on rainy days). I also like I never see other ones around any more. Looking to purchase another vehicle soon so I can give this the attn she well deserves and needs. I will admit tho it don’t handle for a damn but ya just gotta have common sense when driving it. Its not a sports car by any means but will take you places a sports car will never see! (Plus gotta love the retro paint scheme) lol